This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Friday, October 18, 2013

Optional Hijab or forced?

Many people protest against the hijab policy of the Al-Madinah Free School in the United Kingdom. Although investigators explicitly stated that there was no discrimination and no evidence of boys and girls not being mistreated, many bystanders think that the school forces the female sex to cover up their hair and believe that this is segregating and mistreatment. This accusation spread as far as media and politics go that the Parliamentary Secretary for Schools, John Nash, threatened to stop funding the Al-Madinah Free School unless the school relaxes the hijab policy.
I believe that this Al-Madinah school is not really enforcing this hijab policy and in fact everyone chooses to wear the hijab because of culture and religion. The inspector confirms my beliefs since there is no real discrimination nor any mistreatment between both genders. Since there is no evidence, I strongly believe there should be no cuts in the school's public funding and that there should be no racial discrimination against them for "forcing" a hijab policy. The politicians and media probably jumped to conclusions and thought that women were forced to wear hijab, both Muslims and non-Muslims. However, no evidence can support their conclusions; they all base their beliefs on stereotypes and racial prejudice. United Kingdom again holds their own grudge against Muslims and use mass propaganda to intensify the relation between Muslims. Let us have the media and politicians just back off for a bit and let the Muslims clarify exactly what is happening and that the hijab is an optional custom at school and not really enforced.